Does Islam Reject The Monarchy? ( Part 1 )

All over the world, the number of monarchs decrease gradually. In recent decades, people tend to demand democracy for their kingdom compared to monarchy. According to history, few countries showed that the transformation between two systems happened smoothly, but for others the monarchy was abolished violently.

France revolution have changed the country system.

In fact, not all countries have rejected this kind of system which considered as the oldest form of government in the world. By contrast, monarchy still preserved even in developed countries like United Kingdom, Japan and Spain. However, to adapt this system into current reality, the power of monarch should be limited based on the constitution. As the result, the absolute monarchy is switched to be the constitutional monarchy as the country’s leader could not exercise executive powers. Moreover, the monarch must not intervene in government matter or involve in political activities.

Many people feel that would insult the monarch, but in fact it is honorable respect for them. The king or queen should not involve in politics since it may give the negative impact to them. As we know, politics is not always balancing, true or clean. The politician risk to face the scandal, power abuse, or corruption that alleged by their enemies. Therefore, the monarch must be above politics so as to keep the respect from public.

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch for 16 countries.

Monarchy from Islamic perspective.

Many Muslims are of the opinion that the monarchy is not in line with Islam. Their arguments based on few evidences as follows:-

1. The actual political system in Islam is Syura as mentioned in Quran and also practiced by the prophet (PBUH). By contrast, a monarch enjoys absolute power in ruling the country.

2. The prophet Muhammad SAW did not inherit his position to his family. This method is followed by the righteous caliphs.

3. In Quran, there is a versus mentioned about king attitude as follow:-

"Verily! Kings, when they enter a town (country), they despoil it, and make the most honorable amongst its people low. And thus they do. ( An-Naml : 34 )

Yang Dipertuan Agung, the head of Malaysia is the one of elected monarch in the world

I absolutely disagree with this opinion. On the contrary, their arguments could be debatable as follows:

1. It is true that the word of Syura is mentioned two times in Quran, but Islam does not specify how it must be implemented. Even, the prophet ( PBUH ) and his companions have performed syura in different ways.

At the same time, the matters pertaining to syura like the criteria for syura members, the result of syura as an order or just an advice to leader still discussed among Muslim scholar until now.

Actually this argument is irrelevant as all of political system involving many people such as advisors, ministers, and practically this is the syura concept.

2. In Islam any act which not practiced by the prophet ( PBUH ) or the righteous caliphs is not necessarily prohibited as long as it is not against Quran and Hadith. In fact, the political system depends to kingdom situation.

3. In the peaceful country, democracy is the best system for the leader and people in balancing between leader and people right. However, when turmoil takes place, the absolute leader is needed for the sake of country.

According to history, Muawiyyah, the caliph after Ali appointed his son as his successor due to turbulence that occurred in the country. Meanwhile, many prophet’s companions still alive at that time, but they did not oppose his decision.

3. While the versus from chapter An-Naml actually is the Queen Balqis's word as the trigger response to Prophet Sulaiman letter. She was unbeliever at that time which mean her quote could not be argued to justify that monarchy is rejected in Islam.

To be continued…

Heritage Conservation based on Islamic Objectives

As long as no evidences from Quran and Sunnah oppose heritage conservation, we should not claim that Islam does not appreciates this kind of value. By contrast, we must understand this issue carefully and not too hasty in making the conclusion.

In fact, heritage conservation is one of the contemporary issues in Islamic jurisprudence. Thus, if the matter not occurred in prophetic period and also there no clear signal from Quran and Hadith about it, then it must be examined based on Islamic objectives (maqasid syariah).

Al-Ghazali, one of the great muslim scholar, has described this term ( maqasid ) interestingly. According to him:-

“The objectives of Sharia are to promote the well-being of all mankind, which lies in safeguarding their faith (din), their human self (nafs), their intellect (aql), their posterity (nasal) and their wealth (mal). Whatever ensures safeguard of these five serves public interest (al-maslahat al-ammah) and is desirable”

Islamic objectives is a method that guides the Muslim scholars understand the implied meaning for every divine rules in Islam. Therefore, they should not judge the matter based on the literal comprehension of any versus from the Quran and Sunnah. By contrast, they must interpret them under the framework of Islamic objectives and current reality.

One cannot deny that heritage contributes many benefits to Islam and Muslim as follow:-

1. Protect the religion ( Hifz Deen ): - Heritage evidences convince others to believe the fact of Quran. For example, most of the content in Quran is about tales. However, Quran does not prescribe them specifically as its main objective is to give the lesson to human.

Therefore, by protecting the ancient material, It may prove the truth of the stories in Quran. For example, when Allah said the body Pharoah still preservable and it is true.

“We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: ‘I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in: I am of those who submit (to Allah in Islám).’ (It was said to him): 'Ah now!- But a little while before, wast thou in rebellion!- and thou didst mischief (and violence)! This day shall We save thee in thy body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! But verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!’” ( Yunos : 90-92 )

The pharaoh's body

2. Protect the human self ( Hifz Nafs ) : Preserving heritage lead us to discover the whole story about any civilization. The remain ancient material for instance, shed light us to find answers for the questions like how they began, how they became strong and why they felt as the lesson for next generation. This is because the extinction of tribe could be by human themselves such as war and conflict between them or by nature disaster like earthquake or volcano.

3. Protect the intellect ( Hifz Aql ): The first versus of Quran asked human to ‘Iqra’ which mean to read. It can be interpreted as Allah encourages human to discover and do research for any beneficial knowledge.

Meanwhile, heritage is the broad term that includes history, civilization, sociology, religion and serves as the irreplaceable sources. Thus, conservation and restoration efforts for this kind of value are central to the sustainable development of humanities as build up human intellectual.

4. Protect the posterity ( Hifz Nasl ) : Heritage conservation means we preserve our culture and identity. In recent years, we can see how the aggressive Jewish have tried to excavate many lands in Palestine include Al-Aqsa mosque in order to find any significant remain materials that belong to their ancestor. If find, they will justify them as the owner to Palestine land.

5. Protect the wealth ( Hifz Maal ): When the government declare any area as the historical site, consequently it will attract many people from inside or outside country to visit. Indisputably, heritage boost country's economy either for the government by collecting tax and also for the local people as they can sell their product to the tourists.

The entrance ticket for Petra is JD 50

In a nutshell, if preserving the heritages contribute many benefit to religion, education, civilization and also boost the Muslim economy, then this effort should be supported.

Heritage Conservation based on Islamic Perspective. ( Part 3 )

The anti-heritage view definitely not demonstrates the Islamic view on heritage conservation. They even tried to defend their argument based on few versus from Islamic sources, but obviously it's out of the context.

Therefore, one cannot deny that Islam is not against heritage conservation as there are no versus from Quran or Hadith indicate this effort is prohibited. By contrast, few versus show indirectly that ancient heritage is vital in Islam.

For example, in chapter of Rum, Allah said:-

“Do they not travel in the land, and see what the end of those before them was? They were superior to them in strength, and they tilled the earth and populated it in greater numbers than these (pagans) have done, and there came to them their Messengers with clear proofs. Surely, Allah wronged them not, but they used to wrong themselves.” (Ar-Rum 30:9)

According to this versus, Allah asks people to travel and observe the ancient remains of bygone civilizations as the mean to learn from their history. Thus, it also interpreted to mean that manage and preserve ancient sites is necessary so that man can learn from history.

The other obvious fact would be by the acts of the companions. In Islam, the companions of prophet (PUBH) have their own status as they lived together with him (PUBH). So, they are the best persons in understanding and implementing the versus from Quran and Sunnah. Moreover, prophet (PUBH) have declared them as the guidance for Muslim after prophetic period.

According to the Islamic history, the companions conquered many new lands, especially during the righteous caliph period. Meanwhile, most of these lands are rich with historical material because of its location as the past central for old civilization like Byzantine, Roman, Persian and Greek. However, there are not record that the companions destroyed any idols, statues or any artifacts related to ancient civilization.

For example, after Islam entered into Egypt during the Caliph Umar period, he never issued any order to destroy ancient material like pyramid, sphinx and any bygone material that related to old Pharaoh civilization. The same situation happened in Levant ( Syria ) during Islamic period. In fact, numerous of old monuments and sites located in that country still preserved since hundreds years ago. Even in Afghanistan, if the existence of Bamiyan-the giant centuries old Buddha statue- that claimed by Taliban movement against to Islamic teaching, why not the companions destroy it early?

Heritage Conservation based on Islamic Perspective. ( Part 2 )

The view that Islam against the heritage conservation should be examined based on Islamic objectives and current realities. Like the destructions of heritage in Muslim countries, this kind of act also are not demonstrates Islamic principles, even they have justified their action for the sake of Islam.
 

For example, their allegation that the remaining heritage exerts the negative impact on Muslim faith is not totally true. Obviously, there are a huge difference between create the statue for idol and preserve the heritage. The first purpose is to make human worship to the sacred object while the later ( heritage conservation ) just an appreciated act of protecting the historical materials.

Over the past decade, the  awareness for heritage conservation emerged all over the world in order to preserve buildings, sites, artifacts of historical significance as mentioned in UNESCO declaration:-

“Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific, and technological resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated”

Thus, to relate the conservation efforts with sacrosanct acts such as what happened to Noah people or Arab pagan communities before the emerging of Islam actually are improper. Those unbelieved people deliberately built the figure as representation of god while the main objective of heritage conservation today is for educational and civilizational purposes.

Admittedly, the existence of heritages site or its material sometime lead to negative impact to religion such as khurafat and bid'ah activities by some ignorant Muslim. However, we can find many alternative methods to avoid these actions rather than destroy our valuable heritages.
 
Basically, The prohibited or permitted acts in Islam are determined between its' positive and negative impact. Thus, the proper approach accord to which side is most affected. Therefore, we should not forbid a matter based on small disadvantages while at the same time we sacrifice many benefits.

To be continues...

Heritage Conservation based on Islamic Perspective. ( Part 1 )

Many people of the opinion that heritage conservation is not in line with Islamic teaching. Meanwhile, as we can see, there are many cases of demolish of heritage in Muslim countries such as the destruction of sites associated with early Islam in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina of western Saudi Arabia, Bamiyan valley, the giant centuries-old Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Bujang valley, a 1,200-year-old site in Malaysia that was demolished by developer last year.

Bamiyan, the statue of standing buddha destroyed by Taliban in 2011.

Admittedly, there are a few Muslim scholars judge that heritage conservation is prohibited in Islam. The situation is getting worse when the government exploited this view to justify their acts in demolishing heritage site for physical development. Even the Muslim communities, their awareness and understanding of the value of heritage still lack. 

The Muslim scholar that against the heritage conservation, uphold their claim by the following reasons:-

1. Most of the heritage materials, especially ancient civilization is in the form of statues or idols that obviously against the Islamic principle. As we know, Islam never tolerates with any kind of idol.

2. There is a hadith narrated by Abdullah Bin Umar that when prophet Muhammad ( PBUH ) was passing by thamud house on his way to the battle of thamud, he warned his companions from entering upon the people that had been punished, saying

"I fear that you may be affected by what afflicted them; so do not enter upon them."

Justifiably, this hadith interpreted to mean that any preserve efforts of heritage are prohibited given that visit it is prohibited.

However…

Does the heritage conservation effort only for sacrosanct purpose?

What is the main reason of prophet act? Do the forbidden of visiting the heritage sites not be changed according to current reality?

To be continues…

According to an article in the Independent, urbanisation projects for redeveloped mecca are responsible for the destruction of many sacred sites there.